This DART Drone Can Safely Land on Cars at High Speeds
I don't know if you've seen the footage—some of it quite disturbing—but high-speed quadrotor drones are being used to kill people with chilling accuracy in the Ukraine conflict. The progression of that technology will of course outlast the conflict itself, impacting modern warfare worldwide. Meanwhile, researchers at Canada's University of Sherbrooke are making more peaceful progress with high-speed drones. They've developed this Direct Approach Rapid Touchdown (DART) drone , which can safely land on vehicles traveling nearly 70 mph. In order to land on a target moving this fast, the drone has to swoop down at an angle. But unlike the drones being used in war, it then needs to suddenly slow itself and properly land, rather than crash. The researchers solved this with two physical tricks. The first is that right before impact, the drone levels out and quickly reverses its thrust, hitting the air brakes, so to speak. The second is that its four legs have been designed with friction-based shock absorbers in its joints, allowing it to splay its legs to spread the force out. It's pretty cool to watch in action: If this was equipped with some kind of vehicle-disabling feature--like some kind of electrical jammer that would automatically engage a vehicle's brakes--perhaps police chases (another thing that's all over YouTube) will go away.
At a glance
- BrandCore77
- CategoryTech|Tech
Updated Oct 12, 2025